Singers who performed in Kanye West’s Sunday Service choir last year are suing him for unpaid wages.
What We Know:
- Just last month, Kanye was reportedly being sued by staff workers hired to work his first Sunday Service event. The artist held his first opera produced by Live Nation at the Hollywood Bowl in November 2019. The event was called Nebuchadnezzar, a biblical reference to the king of Babylon. The event took several weeks to put together and was often met with last-minute changes due to Kanye’s perfectionist manner. The constant revisions to the performance resulted in overtime for many of its participants.
- Since then, more than a dozen contracted employees, including the choir, have accused the Grammy Award-winning rapper of withholding payment for their services. Documents obtained by The Blast show both West and Live Nation face the $1 million lawsuits for “failing to provide pay stubs and failing to pay minimum wage and overtime” to the Sunday Service choir workers.
- Within the group behind the suit, one hairstylist assistant claims she received an untimely payment for her day rate yet says she is still owed for overtime. She filed a claim for “unpaid wages, continuing wages, damages, civil penalties, statutory penalties and attorney’s fees.”
- The lawsuit further claims the “defendants oversaw, controlled and ran the production, and the aggrieved employees worked many hours on the production and were not timely paid for their work, or paid at all.” This suit is the second to come about from West’s Sunday Service events. In August, he was sued for $20 million by tech company MyChannel Inc. for “stealing” their technology for his concert.
- They allege Kanye had them work for him for 6 months without pay and also promised to invest $10 million into the company, which he never did. Kanye nor his team have issued a response to the claims yet.
Kanye is known for his astounding musical abilities partnered with the unwavering commitment to his work over the years. However, some may say such dedication to perfection has acted as a double-edged sword in his career.
